Goodyear Eagle LS - an homage to Sunday Drivers
Written: Jan 05 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quiet, comfortable, decent in the rain
Cons: Not sticky enough to really launch a car and terrible in high speed cornering
The Bottom Line: -
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| carnut2k4's Full Review: Goodyear Eagle LS Passenger/Performance Tire |
An average performer
A recent extended rental of a 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix also gave me a chance to put the Goodyear Eagle LS Tire through its paces. My findings were that this is a less than stellar performer which is ideally mated to the Pontiac as an OE tire.
Numbers and such
This review specifically covers the 225/60 R16 version of this tire. Broken down, it is 225 millimeters across the section width or tread width with a sidewall aspect of 60. This means the height if the sidewall is 60% of 225 millimeters, or 135 millimeters - a nice cushy sidewall for a mushy ride. The 'R' refers to its Radial construction and the '16' means that it fits on a 16 inch rim. But wait, there's more…
The tire is also marked 97S. This is actually two separate things. The '97' is the Load Index and a rating of 97 means that each tire can support 730 kilos, or 1609 pounds of weight. The 'S' is the Speed Rating which in this case indicates a maximum safe speed of 112 MPH with these tires on your car. Pontiac's choice of 'slow rubber' is telling of their frame of mind when building the car they came on. An arbitrary Tread Wear rating of 360 is assigned to the tire and is indicative of an average mileage lifespan. This isn't soft, high performance rubber with a rating like that! Traction is rated as a solid 'A' and the Temperature rating is 'B'.
The drawing board
This tire was designed with a classic, symmetric tread pattern. These tires can be mounted and spun in either direction. Water dispersion and road comfort were the priority with performance a distant third in importance. From the factory these tires start their life with an initial tread depth of 10/32".
A little warranty is better than none
The Eagle LS comes standard with a Uniformity Warranty that has no time duration but expires when that initial 10/32" of tread hits 8/32". This covers such oddities as an out of round tire or a 'mistake' in the tread pattern, etc. A Workmanship & Materials Warranty covers the tire with full value replacement for the first year or 25% of the tread life and thereafter the warranty is prorated until it expires when the tread is down to the last 2/32".
On the road
As I said before - a less than stellar performer. In fairness though, it does perform correctly for its intended application. I found this tire to be extremely quiet in all circumstances. On the highway and on bumpy / uneven surfaces road noise was kept to a bare minimum. Comfort was excellent too. Bumps that would wake up my kidneys in my own car were absorbed by these tires without the feedback I'm accustomed to. If you like a cushy, vanilla ride then this is a good choice for you. I had the chance to use this tire in moderate rain as well and it performed well - aided by a low, 3500 pound vehicle. The downfall of this tire is found immediately by anyone who drives for fun. I was able to chirp the tires from a red light by flooring the gas pedal and that is no testament to the car's power. Better tires would have dug in with no noise. I also found it very easy to reach the tire's limitations in cornering and found myself backing off on a lot of turns that I would normally accelerate through. This is Goodyear's offering to little old ladies driving underwhelming cars. The 'LS' in the tires name stands for Luxury Sport which is a bit of a stretch in my book. Overall, not a bad choice in its genre and I'll recommend this one without reservation but you'll never find a set of these on any of my cars.
This tire is available at tirerack.com for $79
www.goodyear.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 79
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carnut2k4
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